Satellite Name Changes Coming

[photoman76]

Intelsat and Panamsat have merged. Intelsat will be changing the names of some of it's satellites on February 1, 2007:

http://www.intelsat.com/network/satellite-names/5254-Laminated-card.pdf

 

[mikekohl]

Not exactly a consumer-friendly set of Acronyms.
But I guess that consumer C-band must be invisible to the Intelsat people.
How many American receivers can program both a "G" and a 2-digit number?

How many changes can we endure at the 97 West position?
Telstar 301
Telstar 401
Telstar 5
Intelsat Americas 5
and now...it's Galaxy 25.

Arabsat 2C over the Middle East will now be known as Intelsat 5.

It may be logical to Intelsat, but I for one am sick of memorizing new names that seem to change with the seasons and ownership.

 

[1inabillion]

Yep i agree, i gave up memorizing new satellites names along time ago

 

[dfergie]

I still look for Westar's

 

[charper1]

I still look for Westar's

How about Satcom?

 

[dfergie]

Yes... Satcom 1 and 3 along with Westar 3,4 and 5 ...

 

[No Strings]

The .pdf keept locking me up....

Neal

 

[kymics]

It's not so bad. Just use this formula:

IA# = G2 + old number

E.g. IA6 = G2 + 6 = G26

 

[photoman76]

It's not so bad. Just use this formula:

IA# = G2 + old number

E.g. IA6 = G2 + 6 = G26

It doesn't work for IA13.

 

[brentb636]

Just use the formula : IA# = G2 + old number,
except for IA13, and
when "c" is followed by "i" . ?
Or in a leap year April .

:-?

 

[sdoradus]

I gave up on the names long ago. I can't make any changes on the 4DTV 922 but both of my FTA receivers allowed me to rename to just the degree slots and band (ie 123K, 123C, etc.

 

[kymics]

It doesn't work for IA13.

It does work for IA13 if I had been a bit more specific:

IA# = G2 + right hand digit of old number

E.g. IA13 = G2 + 3 = G23

 

[Tron]

There will be a TON of Galaxies up there!

I wonder if this will bring about any programming changes...

 

[Othea]

Color coding


Perhaps it would it help if the new owners used color coding when they get around to repainting the satellites.

"Locate the green-and-yellow striped satellite, yeah, that's it, squint hard, you'll see it... Now point your dish at it." What could be easier than that?

 

[Krapola]

There will be a TON of Galaxies up there!

I wonder if this will bring about any programming changes...

Why would it?

 

[Sadoun]

Well, that is not good... We get a huge amount of tech support calls when names of satellites change. People get confused (rightly so) about which satellite is which.

Also, we will have to revise all of our Tech support documents, web pages, etc to reflect the new name.

97W we will start refering to it as Galaxy 25 (G25) (aka IA5/Telstar 5) or something like that.

 

[Tron]

Why would it?

If one company is buying the other, I was thinking there could be a chance some customers would move (for business reasons, not technical).

 

[Krapola]

If one company is buying the other, I was thinking there could be a chance some customers would move (for business reasons, not technical).

For "Business reasons" is a cost factor..For "Technical reasons" would be more viable if the need is there...Remember, excluding DTH Sat programs and Internet/Data distribution for "consumers", etc....the sigs on Domsat birds are not primarily for "consumers" to follow as the whining is noted from the begining of this thread.....

 

[Mr Tony]

oh boy...this will make it harder with older recievers

Heck, I got people calling IA8 T4 (since their box shows that)

 

[mastermesh]

Maybe posting this to the faq somewhere might be a good idea, and/or doing some sort of a chart that goes like

Telstar 4 --->IA8--->whatever's next...

Maybe even post a link to that old huge chart that shows where all the birds in the world are... it's a pdf from Boeing in some of the threads somewhere... and optionally, link to Mike's chart and/or Lyngsat.

There's another chart somewhere that I don't have the link too... that I found on another site many moons ago that shows just the stuff over the US and has the KU in green and the DBS in Red.